Samsung's R series laptops are slim and user-friendly. The Samsung R20 isn't as heavy as we'd expected at just 2.4kg, but it remains a sturdy and serious-looking laptop. The all-black interior is somehow uninspiring and lacks hotkeys, while the shiny black exterior appears modern and stylish – although susceptible to fingerprints.

Considering the Samsung R20's modest price we were surprised at the quality of the R20's glossy 1,280x800 14.1in screen, which displayed deep colours and a good level of contrast. Samsung has opted for an ATI Radeon Xpress 1250M graphics card; video playback is noticeably even and of a high quality.

Vista Home Premium runs well on the Samsung R20, as proven by its respectable 59 WorldBench real-world speed benchmark points. The 1.73GHz Intel Core Duo T2250 offers an acceptable amount of power and is backed by 1GB of DDR2 RAM and a 80GB hard drive.

The trackpad on the Samsung R20 is small but easy to use, featuring a scrolling panel – and although the shiny plastic keys below are quite small, we found them user-friendly. The palm rest and keypad incorporate Silver Nano Technology to prevent the attraction of bacteria and we were impressed by the R20's sturdy lid clasps.

The Samsung R20's software bundle is ample, with Magic Doctor and CyberLink DVD provided along with Samsung AV Station – a multimedia application for playing music and movies and viewing images. There are three USB ports – one more than the R20's pricier sibling. We were pleased to see a VGA port, along with a generous six-in-one card reader and Bluetooth. We did notice the lack of 802.11a wireless and a webcam, but the R20 earns its stripes nonetheless.

The Samsung Q70 is an excellent laptop that will be equally well suited as a business or an entertainment laptop. It’ll blend beautifully into any corporate environment thanks to its glossy finish and nimble 2kg frame, while the fast speed and excellent screen will please gamers and multimedia users.

At first glance, Samsung's R70 looks similar to the Samsung R20, sporting a slimline design and polished black outer casing. Although the Samsung R70's shiny surface is undoubtedly stylish, it does smear, a feature we've noticed in some of Samsung's other notebooks.

Samsung has brought the style of its previous LCD television range to its latest LCD monitors. Though lacking the LED backlighting technology seen in many of the latest televisions and bereft of an HDMI port, the 21.5in Samsung SyncMaster P2250 LCD monitor provides good all-round image quality.

The sub-£150 flat-panel displays sector has been receiving plenty of new blood in recent months. The 21.5in ViewSonic VX2250wm takes most of the best bits from what's already there, and melds them into a quietly impressive little screen.